News

Zywicki on WTOP: CFPB Recipe for Disaster

In a radio interview with WTOP News, Professor Todd Zywicki criticizes the structure of the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), saying unchecked power in the hands of one person is a "recipe for disaster."

Zywicki points out that the Federal Trade Commission, an agency with a similar charge, operates with a five-person, bipartisan leadership structure and is subject to budgetary controls by Congress. Neither of those checks and balances is in place for the CFPB, making it the most powerful and unaccountable agency within the government and exposing consumers to the risk of overregulation and resultant harm.

With Republicans claiming President Obama's recess appointment of Richard Cordray as the bureau's first director was improper, Zywicki maintains the challenge is the agency's structure, rather than the individual appointed to lead it.